Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Interview with Razzball

We've done a few pre-season interviews with the fantasy website Razzball.com. I know the season has technically started for most teams including the Giants, we were a little late on this one and I wanted to share it with you guys anyway.

They did a hole write-up on the Giants and their fantasy prospects over at their site and I'll post a link below with the full article. I'm gonna post a couple Q and A's from out part of the article. Definitely check them out if your a fantasy baseball gamer!

M@: The Giants lineup is filled with reliability. Well, in years past it’s been that way. Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Denard Span…they’re mainstays. One name missing? Hunter Pence.
In standard 5×5 leagues I’ve always been a Pence fan as he brings a
high floor and a medum ceiling, perfect for drafting right outside the
top 50. However, 2016 wasn’t as kind to Pence and that reliability as he
tried to recover from injury. What should we expect from Pence in 2017,
a rebound to his old form or another step down into his twilight?

Trevor Cole: If there’s ever a guy to bet on continuing to produce well into his thirties it’s Hunter Pence.
This guy keeps himself in top shape and adheres to a strict diet in
order to continue being successful late in his career. Yes ’15 (freak
injury getting hit by pitch and breaking his arm) and ’16 were
injury-ridden for him and he hasn’t torn it up this spring like I’m sure
the Giants
were hoping, but entering his age-34 season, I think he still does have
plenty left in the tank. As long as he avoids a freak injury, I’d guess
around a .280/20/80/15 slash line with an OPS up around or above .800
would be his ceiling. Again, if he has a DL stint or two those numbers
will drop but if he gets his 600 at-bats, the numbers will be there.

M@: The name not mentioned above that might carry the highest ceiling, somehow, is the trade deadline addition last year, Eduardo Nunez.
Out of nowhere, at age 29, he posted a .288/73/16/67/40 slash line. The
average seems repeatable based on his history, but the outburst of
power/speed is less consistent. At the end of 2017 is Nunez above or
below the line of .270/75/12/60/35?

Trevor Cole: Nunez had a great, out of nowhere first half with the Twins,
however, once he arrived in San Francisco, it took him a good while to
get going. When he did towards the end of the year in September, he hurt
his hamstring and was out of the lineup a lot and missed most of the
postseason as well. He’s a guy many are predicting to build off last
season but I’m not so sure. I do think he’ll hit for a decent average
(above .275) and he’ll steal his bases, but I don’t think the power will
be there like it was in the first half of 2016. He only hit 4 long
balls after joining SF in July, but as I said he finished strong with a
.313/2/10/8 slash line in September despite missing over a weeks worth
of games. Depending on where Bochy hits him in the lineup (and that
could change daily) will determine his RBI/run opportunities but I
expect his average to be around .300 with 10-15 big fly’s and 30 stolen
bases come the end of the year.

I'm not going to re-post the whole thing, so for the rest of the article and Q and A session click the link here!

Now hopefully the Giants and Johnny Cueto can get right vs. the D-Backs and put that disappointing opening day loss behind them!

4 Comments:

Man are the D-Backs really good or getting lucky or what cuz the Giants can't hold them down. They almost caught up to Ceuto yesterday too. Thought SP was suppose to be our best area on the team?!?!?!?

I think this is the year when the Giants are just a middle-of-the-road club. The D-Backs are not exactly the 1927 Yankees but they clubbed the Giants' staff as if they were. It's only the start of the season but there isn't a member of the pitching staff who looks even mediocre except for Strickland. Left field is, again, a question mark. The bullpen catcher busted his finger. This is shaping up like a much worse version of 2016. Of course, this could turn around on a dime but I expect my forecast of 75-87 for these Giants is going to look prescient by mid season.

Wednesday's game definitely wasn't on Matt Moore. If Belt comes up with that grounder cleanly in the 5th than Moore likely keeps the lead and who knows what would have happened.

The Giants look a little slow out of the gate for sure. Matt Cain was a disappointing on Friday vs. the Padres and all the sudden they're 1-4. Had they held the lead in the opener and Belt doesn't make that crucial error in game 3 vs. AZ then they easily could be 3-2 at this point. Not time to panic at all yet, still in week 1, but you can see the area's that were neglected in the offseason already biting them (left field, middle relief, 5th starter etc...).

I don't think they're going to be quite that bad. They've caught some bad breaks and are better than their record shows. But again, I agree, left field is a problem and one I think most of us saw coming which baffles me why they didn't upgrade in offseason. This team isn't built for success in 5 years, they're a team trying to win now and over the course of the next couple of seasons, and they should have had a little more urgency in this last free agency period, IMO.